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COMMUNICATION 



FROM THE 



BOARD OF MANAGERS 



OF THE 



MARYLAND STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY, 



TO THE 



PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE CONVENTION 



NOW ASSEMBLED IN BALTIMORE, 



IN REFERENCE TO THE SUBJECT OF COLONIZATION. 



BALTIMORE: 

PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY. 

1841. 






^1 b'3 L. ^ 
'04 



COMMUNICATION 



FROM THE 



BOARD OF MANAGERS 



MARYLAND STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY, 

To the President and Members of the Convention now assembled in Baltimore, 
in reference to the subject of Colonization. 

Gentlemen: 

In pursuance of the duty imposed on them by the resolution of the last 
Annual Matting of the Maryland State Colonization Society, held at Anna- 
polis, the Board of Managers appointed this day for the meeting of the 
Convention then resolved upon, and published an Address to the people of 
the State, calling their attention to the subject as one of deep and vital 
interest. 

The Board of Managers, in doing thus, have performed perhaps, fully, 
all that was required of them by the resolution above mentioned : but inas- 
much as the call for a Convention grew out of what took place at the 
Annual Meeting of the State Society, it has been thought, that it would 
not be unacceptable to the Convention, were they to reiterate briefly, the 
facts and views which were stated at Annapolis — as well as to present 
such other considerations as have been suggested in the interval. 

The State Society exists for the purpose of promoting zn Maryland the well 
known objects of the Colonization scheme — the removal of the free people 
of colour with their own consent to the Coast of Africa. It is independent 
wholly, at this time, of the American Colonization Society. This inde- 
pendence was the result of the convictions of many years experience of 
the inefficiency, so far as Maryland was concerned, of the general system. 
It was believed that more could be done by concentrating the efforts of the 
Colonizationists of Maryland within the limits of their own State, than by 
any probable quota of aid that could be afforded by a society in Washington, 
equally bound to all the other states ; and it was plain, that in anticipation 
of the time when the voluntary emigration of the free people of colour 
would be the realization of the scheme, it would be better that Maryland 



should have a colony of her own, open without restraint to emigrants from 
her borders, instead of being dependent upon other colonies whose govern- 
ment might find it necessary to apportion the right of immigration. Be- 
sides these, in themselves sufficient reasons, for independent action, the 
State Society was especially moved by the consideration, that the whole 
subject of the coloured population was one which belonged exclusively to 
the States in which the institution of slavery existed — that extraneous 
interference therewith, or with any matters collateral thereto, was to be 
wholly repudiated — and that it was impossible to hope for harmonious 
action in any general society, whose members entertained such diiFerent 
views respecting Colonization and its consequences, as did the northern 
and southern members of the American Colonization Society. Influenced 
by these considerations, the system of independent state action, on all mat- 
ters connected with the coloured population, was adopted by the State 
Society, and has for the last ten years been avowed and pursued. 

The Society after being incorporated by the Legislature, and having de- 
termined to found a colony of their own, became the agent of the managers 
of the State Colonization fund in removing to Africa the subjects of the act 
of Assembly, passed at the session of 1831, and its supplements — and on 
the 22d February, 1834, they purchased the territory of Cape Palmas, to 
which was given the name of Maryland in Liberia, and to which have 
since been sent all emigrants from Maryland. This spot was selected after 
numerous inquiries and with much deliberation. Its geographical position 
is one of great importance. It is at the southern extremity of the south- 
west coast, and is the point made by all vessels passing to and fro from 
the Niger, and the country lying on the shores of the great Bights of Benin 
and Biafra. The territory of the Society extends on the coast about 35 
miles, and indefinitely towards the interior, including in it the Cavally, one 
of the principal rivers of South-western Africa. The annals of Coloniza- 
tion present no instance of uninterrupted prosperity to be compared to that 
which has blessed the infant settlement of the State Society. The last 
advices from it are up to the 12th March last, and the first untoward event, 
to disappoint any reasonable expectation of its friends, has yet to take place. 
Health, happiness, and quiet prosperity, are essentially its characteristics. 
The last letter of the colonial physician states that there has not been a 
death in the colony for eight months. On a recent occasion all the tempta- 
tions that an English agent could offer, failed to induce more than one man 
to leave the colony to join a British settlement — and there is, in the posses- 
sion of the Board of Managers, an agricultural survey of the colony shew- 
ing the extent of land under cultivation, the articles cultivated, and the 
exuberant supplies of food procured by the labour of the colonists them- 
selves upon their land. Coffee and sugar are promising to become staples 
of export. Cotton has been cultivated with success. The soil produces all 
the vegetables of the tropics. The Cape and the surrounding country have 
for a long period been known as supplying rice to both the windward and 
leeward coasts. Palm oil is exported by the natives in immense quantities. 
Cattle, game, and fish are abundant — and to sum up all, it may be safely 
said, that there is nothing ministering to individual ease and comfort, or 



national aggrandizement, that is not within the reach of ordinary industry 
in Maryland in Liberia. 

The population of the colony now consists of something more than five 
hundred emigrants, who have sailed from Maryland to Cape Palmas. 
To the prudence with which the emigration was first conducted, which 
permitted each body of emigrants to become settled before they were fol- 
lowed by another, is to be attributed in great degree the steady advance of 
the colony. 

All the officers of the colony from the highest, the agent of the Board of 
Managers, called the governor, to the lowest, are persons of colour — who 
have thus far discharged their duties with a propriety whose best evidence 
is the condition of the settlement. Governor Russwurm was educated at 
Bowdoin college, in the State of Maine, where he graduated with the high- 
est honours, and, besides his classical attainments, is a person of great pru- 
dence and judgment. He was at one time the editor of an abolition paper 
in New York, which he abandoned to become a colonist at Monrovia, 
where he engaged in mercantile pursuits, until the Maryland Society, hav- 
ing determined to appoint a coloured agent, induced him to take charge of 
the colony at Cape Palmas. The colonial physician is also a coloured man, 
of education and ability, the son of a Maryland emigrant, who received 
his medical education at a college in New England ; and indeed the only 
white persons at Cape Palmas are the missionaries established there by the 
societies in this country : and of these last it may be said that they seem 
thus far fully to have disproved the oft reiterated and generally believed 
assertion that the climate of the African coast was fatal to the life of the 
white man. 

The principal town of the territory is on the promontory of Cape Palmas, 
and from this the farms of the colonists extend for five miles into the inte- 
rior, bordering upon roads graded and bridged for carriages. At the extre- 
mity of the Maryland avenue, as it is called, is a small stockade, which 
forms at present the frontier post of the settlement. Besides the school 
supported by the Society, and one maintained by an association of ladies 
in Baltimore, there are several maintained by the missionaries, to which 
the colonists have access. 

The laws under which the colony is governed consist of a charter, 
closely resembling that granted by King Charles to Rhode Island — an ordi- 
nance taken mainly from Nathan Dane's ordinance for the government of 
the North-west Territory — and a remedial code prepared with great labour 
and learning, by Hugh D. Evans, Esq. of Baltimore, including forms for all 
processes and instruments likely to be wanted. Under the charter, the 
ordinance and the remedial code — superseding, as they have done by 
express enactment, all other forms of law — the colonists have enjoyed the 
blessings of a well regulated liberty under a republican form of government. 

It is a pecuUarity of the charter that it gives to the government the right 
to legislate to prohibit the use of ardent spirit, and the colony is the only 
instance in the world of a nation whose fundamental law embodies in it 
the temperance code. It is due to the colonists to say that their full con- 



viction of the salutary effects of abstinence, has made them especially 
cherish this feature of their constitution. 

The occupations of the colonists are chiefly agricultural and mechanical, 
trade being in the hands of the Society's agent, as a means of adding to 
the income of the Society for colonization purposes, and maintaining the 
colony. It is expected that the trade of the colony, which has grown up 
naturally, and which has already done much towards diminishing the 
expenses of the Society, will in a reasonable time enable the Board to con- 
fine the means obtained in this country to the removal of emigrants and 
home expenses exclusively. 

The colony is in the midst of native tribes, with all of whom the most 
friendly relations are maintained. Peace with them is indeed a cardinal 
point of the policy of the government, and it has been maintained since the 
founding of the settlement, unbroken, without sacrificing in any degree the 
dignity and influence which superior civilization gives to the American 
emigrant. 

In mentioning this gratifying state of things, it would be unjust not to 
express the sense entertained by the Board of the value of the missionary 
labours around the settlement. These have been unceasing and self- 
sacrificing, and have realized in the particular here mentioned all the 
expectations entertained in regard to the pious and excellent men who 
have devoted themselves in this part of Africa to the instruction of the 
heathen. 

The funds of the Society are derived from the State appropriation under 
the act of 1831, limited to $10,000 per annum, and the contributions of 
benevolent individuals, which last has raised very much from time to 
time — being once or twice as much as $5000 per annum, though oftener 
not exceeding $1000. 

The sum expended by the Society in the founding of the colony, and the 
attendant outlay in Africa and in this country, up to the 1st of December 
last, has been $127,825.07, of which $76,139.91 has been paid by the 
State Colonization fund, $32,351. 62 has been contributed by individuals 
and by the gain of the trade of the colony. The principal items of expen- 
diture have been the purchase of the territory — the erection there of the 
necessary buildings and improvements, both for the government and in 
aid of the emigrants — the support of emigrants for the first six months, 
which is necessary to be done while the colony is yet so young — the trans- 
portation of emigrants from this country — and the payment of officers in 
Africa, and the expenses of agencies, office rent, &c. in Maryland. 

Among the expenditures thus noticed, are included those connected with 
two expeditions to the old colon}"^ at Monrovia, sent before the purchase of 
Cape Palmas. 

The Board of Managers do not offer this statement as exhibiting the cost 
of transporting and establishing emigrants in Africa, or as a standard by 
which the feasibility of Colonization is to be determined with reference to 
the moans of this country. Under any view of the subject this would be 
incorrect, because a portion of the expenses incident to establishing a 
colony, occur but once, and have been borne already. But the Society 
looking as they do upon Colonization as a scheme of voluntary emigration. 



the principal question with them appeared to be, not whether they should 
emigrate, but what was the best time for emigration. 

Between 1825 and 1831, however, what is known as modern abolition, 
which aims at the immediate extirpation of slavery, without any regard to 
the rights of property acquired under existing laws, and with a blind reck- 
lessness of consequence, began to assume a defined shape and extensive 
organization: and as soon as the Colonization policy of Maryland was 
understood, it became the point of virulent and opprobious assault : the 
leading publication on the subject being a pamphlet published in Boston, 
entitled, 'The Maryland Scheme of Expatriation Examined' — the aim of 
which was to set Colonization in the position (which indeed it truly occu- 
pies,) of the antagonist of abolition, and as such, to consign it to public 
execration. From that period to the present, the Board of Managers have 
had to encounter the fixed and steady opposition of the abolition doctrines, 
disseminated among the coloured people of the State by means not the less 
effective, because it is difficult to identify them, and because the work of 
misrepresentation goes on quietly and in the dark. From the oft reiterated 
statements of their agents, who have for years been canvassing the State, 
the Board have every reason to believe, that they have been tracked in their 
missions from place to place — their statements contradicted, their motives 
assailed, and the grossest falsehoods regarding them, uttered by either the 
paid, or the voluntary agents of abolition. Again and again, has the agent 
taken the names of whole families for emigration, who were evidently at 
the time of giving them, wholly ignorant of abolition and its doctrines — and 
when the agent has afterwards visited them to collect them for embarka- 
tion, they have refused to accompany him, urging in excuse the well known 
arguments of the abolitionists — and having their minds filled with hopes 
which it were madness to believe could be realized — and statements so ab- 
surdly false as to savour of the ludicrous, but for their mischievous and evil 
intentioned source. So common, truly, was this state of things, that it was 
the usual remark of the agents — that it was only necessary for a coloured 
man to declare his intention of emigrating in his neighbourhood, to make 
it certain that he would never leave the State — for the declaration at once 
made him the object of the countervailing efforts of the abolitionists. 

The arguments of these last were of two kinds, suited to the character of 
the individual addressed. To the ignorant, the weak and timid, it was said 
that Africa was so unhealthy, that to live there was impossible — that it was 
one vast desert of sand — that it abounded in serpents of vast size, and wild 
beasts that would destroy the life the climate spared — that the natives were 
warlike and ferocious, killing and eating their enemies — and that they were 
constantly at war with the colonists — that the accounts given by the coloni- 
zationists were all false — that they were in fact, slave traders — that often, 
when their vessels with emigrants, cleared the Capes of the Chesapeake, 
they ran down the coast to Georgia, and there the emigrants were sold — 
or else they were carried still further south, to unknown lands, to die by vio- 
lence. To those of the coloured people who knew better than to listen to 
these absurdities — the argument assumed another shape, and the intelligent 
and the ambitious were told that all emigrants were traitors to their race, 



such as annually takes place from Europe to America, rely upon the opera- 
tion of the same motive ultimately — a desire to benefit their condition — 
that influences the European emigrant to seek the United States — to 
induce the free coloured population to seek the home of their fathers ; all 
that is necessary to bring about this result, being, as the Board of Mana- 
gers behave, the establishment of happy and prosperous communities of 
civihzed coloured people on the shores of Africa. For this purpose the 
means that may be obtained, experience has shev^rn to be sufficient, though 
it might perhaps be doubted whether they would be adequate to the pay- 
ment of the cost of transporting each emigrant that might be willing to 
leave America. 

Such a community as here mentioned, the Board of Managers have no 
hesitation in saying has been established at Cape Palmas, small, it is true, 
and of yet but limited influences, but containing within itself already the 
germs of future increase and national importance, and requiring for but 
a comparatively short time the assistance that has thus far reared and main- 
tained it, to enable it to fulfil all the reasonable expectations of its founders 
and friends. 

From what has been said it will be perceived, that the discussion of the 
subject of Colonization in Maryland is necessarily connected with the 
colony springing from the State, established by its bounty, and existing at 
present to promote the views that led to the adoption of the State's policy 
upon the subject. The history of the colony has, therefore, been given, 
and the views entertained by the Board of Managers who have had the con- 
trol of it heretofore through their agents in Africa. 

The small annual increase of the colony in the early period of its exis- 
tence has already been alluded to, and shewn to have corresponded with 
the views of the Managers, in regard to the best means of giving stability 
to the settlement. Of late years its increase has been retarded — though 
perhaps, without any disadvantage to the colony itself, by two causes, 
differing widely in themselves, but both operating to retard emigration. 
These will now be noticed. 

When Colonization was first advocated in the United States, in 1816, 
there was nothing known of what may be called modern abolition. There 
were societies it is true, that called themselves abolition societies — but they 
aimed rather, if not entirely, at assisting the coloured people against op- 
pression under pretence of law — and did not, as is well known, assert the 
principles or seek the ends that are proclaimed by modern associations 
under the same title. In 1820, when the first settlement was made by the 
American Colonization Society there was no difficulty in obtaining emi- 
grants — emigration the ndepended only upon the means of the Society to 
transport — and this continued to be the case year after year — and in 1832, 
when the first expedition under the State Colonization law was sent from 
Maryland to Monrovia, prior to the purchase of Cape Palmas, the agent, in 
a single neighbourhood on the Eastern Shore, found no difficulty in procuring 
one hundred and fifty emigrants, of character and intelligence. During 
this period it seemed to have grown into a general belief, on the part of the 
coloured people, that their interest would be promoted by emigration, and 



that every emigrant to Africa diminished by one the numerical force upon 
which they had to rely for extorting from the fears, what they could not 
obtain from the justice, of the whites — political and social equality — called 
among the coloured people in common parlance 'their rights' — that if 
Colonization could be destroyed by continued opposition among the coloured 
people themselves — for without emigrants it could not exist — then the 
whites would seriously consider how far they could yield to the other race an 
equal participation in all political and social enjoyments. That in Mary- 
land, especially, Colonization was to be opposed — because in Maryland it 
was more likely to succeed than any where else, and if defeated here it 
would be admitted to be hopeless elsewhere. These two sets of arguments 
found hearers among the coloured people, according to the intelligence of 
the individual addressed — and being constantly urged for the last ten years, 
have formed the most important obstacle in the way of the society in their 
attempts to increase their colony by emigration from this country. 

What is here stated has been again and again repeated in the Annual 
Reports of the Society, and is believed to be beyond contradiction. 

The Board have grounds to believe, however, that the arguments here 
mentioned have lost some of their former weight with the free people 
of colour : and there is reason to think that these are beginning slowly to 
find out, that while the efforts of the abolitionists have alienated from them 
the kindly feelings, out of which grew the old abolition societies already 
referred to, they have given them instead, nothing but hopes, which the 
events of each succeeding day are shewing more and more plainly to be 
impossible of accomplishment. As evidence of this, may be cited the emi- 
gration to the British West Indies, which, so long as it continued, was 
strongly indicative of the existence of a feeling among the free coloured 
population, that their condition might be bettered by removing from among us. 
When this feeling becomes general, the question will be, which place offers 
the most advantages to the emigrant; and then there can be little doubt, that 
the impartial judgment of the coloured people will prefer the colonies on 
the Coast of Africa, where the enjoyment of political power is a right, to 
any place where a scant and poor participation in it is but a nominal and 
delusive gift. 

The above reason, which to a considerable extent, has retarded the ope- 
rations of the Board, and prevented their taking the active steps to procure 
emigrants, that they would otherwise have done, grows out of the pecuniary 
affairs of the Society. Since its organization under the charter, it has 
been the aim of the Board of Managers to maintain the Society's credit on 
the highest ground, and up to this day there has been the same punctuality 
maintained in meeting engagements that marks a commercial house of 
respectability. With a view to the economical prosecution of their affairs, 
the Society has always sent trade goods to Africa, to meet the expenses 
there, instead of permitting drafts from thence upon the Society. A draft for 
an hundred dollars given to a trader on the Coast, purchases these goods, 
which cost but sixty-six dollars in the United States — and if the hundred 
dollars in place of being paid for the draft had been invested by the Society 
and sent to the agent, it would be worth to him in goods, two hundred doi- 
2 



10 

lars — so that the Society found itself forced to assume from its commence- 
ment, a commercial character, and along with every shipment of emigrants 
to send an assorted cargo of goods required in the African trade. These 
formed when required, the money of the colony, and constituted a capital 
on which the agent carried on a trade in rice and palm oil, whose profits 
went still further to eke out the means of the Society. On the 1st Decem- 
ber, 1840, the net gains on this account, after charging it with interest paid 
and losses amounted to $16,444.90. This system which so much increases 
the means of the Society in its African relations, can only be carried on by 
the most scrupulous observance of punctuality in meeting all engagements, 
and this again requires that no obligation be entered into without clearly 
seeing the manner of meeting it. 

In the commencement of the settlement the expenditures necessary for 
the purchase of territory, erection of buildings, opening of roads, fortifi- 
cations, arms, &c., and also for the entire support of the colony for two or 
three years — and afterwards the policy pursued of aiding the emigrants 
until they were permanently established, involved the Society beyond its 
receipts, and obliged them steadily to curtail their operations as soon as the 
colony became strong enough to stand with but little assistance by itself. 
This was the more necessary, inasmuch as individual contributions dimi- 
nished under the pressure of the times. The Society, therefore, has sent 
out no expedition for a year past, but by husbanding its means, has been 
gradually absorbing the debt created under the circumstances above men- 
tioned, a process necessarily slow, when it is recollected that a nation has 
been founded in prosperity, and all the home and foreign expenses of the 
Society borne at an expenditure that has not averaged more than $13,000 
per annum. This debt of the Society is reduced at this time to about $8,000, 
which includes all probable demands up to the 1st July, 1841, and excludes 
an)' advantages which may be derived from the trade of the colony, in pay- 
ing the expenses accruing in Africa. Up to March 12th last, no draft had 
been drawn on the Society ; and besides paying a draft which had been 
returned under protest, through a misunderstanding, the agent had pur- 
chased a schooner of forty tons, with which he was actively prosecuting a 
trade on the coast on colonial account. 

From these statements it will be seen that the State Society have suc- 
ceeded in establishing a colony at Cape Palmas, in every respect competent 
to the exigencies of Colonization in Maryland ; and that this has been done 
with the means furnished by a single slaveholding State, applied upon the 
principle of independent State action, which repudiates in the State where 
slavery exists, all extraneous interference in matters that are so peculiarly 
of home and fire-side concern as those that relate in any way to its coloured 
population. But to realize to their utmost extent the benefits of what has 
been thus accomplished, there must be a more general and united action 
throughout the State on the subject of Colonization, than has yet been had. 
As yet it is but a matter of curious interest that there should have been 
established with the success and economy that have been described, a 
colony on the coast of Africa upon the principle already detailed ; and 
although this result of independent State action in Maryland, proves that 



11 

Colonization among the slaveholding States may be successfully carried on 
by themselves, as, owing to the peculiar character of the questions involved, 
it ought to be ; yet the useful, practical advantages of Colonization in 
Maryland, are in a great measure yet to be realized. To this end it is 
necessary to remove the prejudice prevailing among the coloured popula- 
tion, whether it arises from a belief in the misrepresentations current with 
regard to the health and circumstances of the colony, or is the result of the 
vain and idle hopes of future social and political equality in this country, 
which it has been the aim of modern abolitionists to implant in the breasts 
of the free coloured people of Maryland ; and it is also necessary to aug- 
ment the pecuniary means of the Society, that it may be able to transport 
more emigrants to Africa, and prosecute improvements there until the 
well assured and long continued prosperity of the colony shall produce 
that voluntary emigration which is looked forward to as the fruition of 
Colonization. 

To effect these purposes, it was, that at the last Annual Meeting the pre- 
sent Convention was directed to be called ; and taking it for granted that 
the situation of Maryland, the legislation of the State, the oft expressed 
feelings of her people upon occasion after occasion, have given to the 
scheme of Colonization a sanction which renders it unnecessary to argue 
its merits or its expediency, — the Board of Managers would most respect- 
fully express their hope and belief that the action of the Convention 
now assembled will result in producing a concerted and energetic action 
throughout the State ; which, influencing the citizens generally to contri- 
bute to the funds of the Society, from a conviction of the vital character of 
its objects, will at the same time operate upon the free coloured population 
to remove their prejudices, whether arising from the fears or from the 
hopes already referred to. 

It has appeared to the Board of Managers, and they respectfully suggest 
it to the Convention, that the time has arrived when it becomes the 
citizens of the State to take this matter into serious consideration. The 
statistics of the population of Maryland since 1790, are full of admonition, 
and exhibit a state of things that should not be disregarded ; a mere inspec- 
tion of them exhibits as strong an argument for action as could be furnished 
by the most elaborate commentary. They shew that the coloured popula- 
tion of the State is changing its character ; that the free are increasing and 
the slaves diminishing in numbers, and that the same rates of increase of 
the one, and diminution of the other, will result in the whole coloured 
population becoming ultimately free, and equal in numbers to the present 
aggregate of slave and free. When this day arrives, if there be truth in 
the history which tells of the races that have inhabited the same lands, 
and which could not amalgamate, the harmonious existence of the white 
and coloured races here will become impossible. Against this day Coloni- 
zation has been preparing its asylum. Colonization, indeed, may be able to 
arrest it by the gradual removal of the free coloured population, as the rod 
of Franklin anticipates the lightning when it draws insensibly from the 
angry clouds, their pent-up electricity. 

Among the most important auxiliaries in the task of removing the preju- 



J2 

dices to emigration, the Board have relied upon the establishment of a 
regular trade between Maryland, and Maryland in Liberia, and had their 
means permitted, they would long since have purchased a vessel of their 
own, to be officered and manned with colonists, that should sail to and fro 
at stated intervals, receiving emigrants as occasion might require, as well 
along the bay as at Baltimore. The intercourse that would thus be esta- 
blished, would, it is confidently believed, be productive of the best effects 
in overcoming growing prejudice, and also in promoting those commercial 
interests of the colony which are so important to its w^ealth and prosperity. 

The Board are under the impression too, that an organization of County 
associations to have in charge the whole subject of Colonization in their 
respective limits, would be attended with excellent results, not only as 
at^encies for the collection of funds, but also to impart information to the 
coloured people, and counteract the influences which as alread}^ mentioned, 
circumstances have satisfactorily shewn to be secretly at work among them. 
The occasional visit of the single travelling agent that the Society has 
barely the means to employ, may create a temporary feeling of interest 
which cannot be expected to endure until he again returns after having 
made the circuit of the State. The interest that is required, however, must 
be permanent in its character to be useful, and the Board see no manner in 
which it can be created and maintained so well as through the agency of 
County associations. The presidents of these associations should be ex- 
officio members of the Board of Managers, in Baltimore, in which way the 
relations between the parent and auxiliary boards would be made intimate 
and efficient. And in addition to these, the means of the Society ought to 
be such as to enable them to employ numerous agents of talent and infor- 
mation to canvass the State thoroughly, and at short intervals, acting in 
concert with the County societies. 

It has been so often asked of the Board of Managers why they have not 
removed to Africa all the slaves manumitted since the act of 1831, and 
prohibited by that act from remaining in the State, that it will not be out of 
place to allude here to the subject. It is true that the managers of the 
State Colonization fund who use the agency of the State Society under the 
act in question are required to have the slaves manumitted removed from 
the State, and are authorized to call on the sheriff of the Counties in which 
the manumission takes place, to put the manumitted slaves out of the State, 
if they refuse to emigrate to Liberia. But the law is in truth so impracticable 
of execution that it has remained in this particular, almost a dead letter on 
the statute book. In the first place, the majority of manumissions are prospec- 
tive, and in the next, the Orphans Court have the right to grant permits to 
remain to the freed man, because of his extraordinary good character — and 
even where the manumission is immediate, and no permit is granted to re- 
main, the manumitted slave remains unnoticed in the neighbourhood, con- 
cealed, perhaps, when the agent visits it, and there being no one upon the 
spot whose business it is trouble himself about the matter, the law is evaded 
in nine cases out of ten. Nor is it in the Society's power to prevent this. 
As the law now stands it w^ould be necessary for them to have an agent in 
every county whose exclusive duty it should be to enforce the provisions 



13 

of instruments of manumissions, which would involve an expense far be- 
yond the whole income of the Society from all sources. The managers 
have not been unmindful of their duty in this respect, however, and have 
never failed to send their agent wherever information was afforded to them 
of any case requiring their action — and it has happened that the agent has 
thus been travelling from one extremity of the State to the other, only to 
find that the freed slave had a permit to remain, or to hear him promise to 
sail in the next expedition, his place in which he never appeared to claim ; 
disappearing when the agent went for him a short time previous to the time 
of embarkation. Facts like these here mentioned must be known to many 
members of the Convention. 

In this communication the Board of Managers have endeavoured to 
notice all the matters which it was thought might be of interest to the Con- 
vention, or useful in its deliberations; any other information in their reach 
it will gratify them to afford, and they beg to say that the office and records 
of the Society are at all times open to the members of the Convention, or 
any of the committees which that body may think proper to appoint. 

A tabular statement of the different census of Maryland, from 1790 to 

1840, both inclusive, is herewith submitted — also a statement of the 

manumissions reported to the office in Baltimore, since 1831 — also a Ust of 

the expeditions, and the number sent in each by the Society to Africa. 

On behalf of the Board of Managers, 

JOHN H. B. LATROBE, 
Prexident. 



Population of Maryland in 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830 and 1840, as 
shewn by the census taken in those years, 





White. 


Slaves. 


Free Col'd. 


Agg. Col'd. 


Total. 


1790 


208,649 


103,036 


8,043 


111079 


319,728 


1800 


216,326 


105,635 


19,587 


125,238 


341,548 


tsio 


235,117 


111,502 


33,927 


145,429 


380,546 


1820 


259,522 


107,998 


39,730 


147,728 


407,350 


1830 


291,108 


102,994 


52,938 


155,932 


447,040 


1840 


316,011 


89,619 


61.093 


151,556 


467,567 



Population of the Couniies of Mnrylandin 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830 and 
1840, as shewn by the census taken in those years. 



CECIL. 



KENT. 



C.-VROLINE. 





Slaves. 


F. Col. 


White. 


Total. 


Slaves. 


F. Col. 


White. 


Total. 


Slaves. 


F. Col. White. 


Total. 


1790 


3,407 


163 


10,055 


13,625 


5,443 


655 


6,748 


12,836 


2,057 


421 


7,028 


9,506 


1800 


2,103 


373 


6,542 


9,018 


4,474 


1,786 


5,511 


11,771 


1,865 


602 


6,759 


9,226 


1810 


2,467 


947 


9,652 


13,066 


4,249 


1,979 


5,222 


11.450 


1,520 


1,001 6,932 


9,453 


1820 


2,342 


1,783 


11,821 


16,046 


4,07] 


2,067 


5,315 


11,4.53 


1,574 


1,.390 7,144 


10,108 


1830 


1,705 


2.249 


11,478 


15,432 


3,19] 


2,260 


5,050 


10,501 1,171 


1,652' 6,247 


9,070 


1840 


1,346 


2,552 


1.3,464 17 362] 


2,741 


2,586 


5,513 


10,840 768 


1,727 5,373 


7,868 



TALBOT. 



QUEEN ANNE'S. 



SOMERSET. 





Slaves. 


F. Col. 


White. 


Total. 


Slaves. 


F. Col. 


(White. 


Total. 1 


Slav'!S. 


F. Col. 


White. Total. 


1790 


4,777 


1,076 


7,221 


13,084 


6,674 


618 


8,171 


15,463! 


7,070 


268 


8,272 15,610 


1800 


4,775 


],.591 


7,070 


13,436 


6,517 


1,025 


7,315 


14,857 


7,432 


586 


9,340 17,358 


1810 


4,878 


2,003 


7,349 


14,230 


6,381 


2,738 


7,529 


16,648 


6,975 


1,058 


9,162 17,195 


1820 


4,769 


2,234 


7,386 


14,389 


5,588 


2,1.38 


7,226 


14,952 


7,241 


1,952 


10,386 19,579 


1830 


4,173 


2,483 


6,291 


12,947 


4,872 


2,866 


6,559 


14,3971 


6,556 


2,239 


11,371 20,166 


1840 


3,698 


2,.336 


6,069 12,10.31 


3,979 


2.540 


6,006 


12.5251 5,,385 


2,642 


11,477 19,-504 



DORCHESTER. 



WORCESTER. 



ALLEGANY. 



1 Slaves. 


F. Col. 


White. 


Total. 


Slaves. 


F. Col. 


White. 


Total. 


Slaves. 


F. Col. 


White. 


Total. 


1790 5,377 


528 


10,010 


15,875 


3,836 


178 


7,626 


11,640 


258 


12 


4,.539 


4,809 


1800 4,566 


2,365 


9,415 


16,346 


4,398 


449 


11,523 


16,370 


499 


101 


5,703 


6,.303 


1810 5,0.32 


2,661 


10,415 18,108 


4,427 


1,054 


11,490 


16,971 


620 


113 


6,176 


6,909 


1820, 5,168 


2,497 


10,094 


17,759 


4,551 


1,636 


11,234 


17,421 


795 


195 


7,664 


8,654 


1830 5,001 


3,000 


10,685 


18,686 


4,032 


2,430 


10,197 


16,659 


818 


222 


9,569 


10,609 


1840 4,232 


3,965 


10,612 


18,809 


3,543 


3,063 


11,647 


18,253 


811 


216 


14,677 


15,704 



WASHINGTON. 



FREDERICK. 



BALTIMORE. 



1790 
1800 
1810 
1820 
1830 
1840 



Slaves. F 
1,286 
2,200 
2,656 
3,201 
2,909 
2,505 



Col. 

64 

342 

483 

627 

1,084 

1,556 



White. 
14,472 
16,108 
15,591 
19,247 
21,275 



Total. 

15,822 

18,650 

18,730 

23,075 

25,268 



24,801 28,862 



Maves. 
3,641 
4,.572 
5,671 
6,555 
6,370 



F. Col. j White. 

213!26,9.37 

47326,478 

783127,983 

1,777132,097 

2,716.36,703 



Total. 

30,791 

31,523 

34,437 

40,459 

45,789 



Slaves. F. Col. 
5,8771 604 
6,830 1,-536 
6,697 1,537 
6,720| 2,163 
6,.533l 3,098 



White. 
18,953 
24,150 
21,021 
24,580 
30,625 



Total. 

25,434 

32,516 

29,255 

33,463 

40,256 



B .\ L T I M O R E CITY 



HARFORD. 



MONTGOMERY. 



[Slaves. 
1790 1.255 
1800 2,843 
1810 4,672 
1820 4,357 
1830 4,120 
1840| 3,212 



F. Col. 

32:i 
2,771 
5,671 
10,326 
14,790 
17,980 



White. 
11,925 
20,900 
-36,212 
48,055 
61,710 
81,321 



Total. 
13,503 
26,514 
46.455 
62,738 
80,620 
102.513 



Slaves. 
.i.417 
4,264 
4,431 
3,320 
2,984 
2,537 



F. Col. 
775 
1,344 
2,221 
1,3S7 
2,048 
2,449 



White. 
10,784 
12,018 
14,606 
11,217 
11,287 
11,915 



Total. 

14,976 

17,626 

21,2.58 

15,924 

16,319 

16,901 



■Slaves. IF, 
6.030 
6,288 
7.572 
6,396 
6,447 
5,127 



Col.: 

294 
262 
677 
922 
1,266 
1,240 



White. 

11,679 
8,508 
9,731 
9,082; 

12,103, 
8,292i 



Total. 

18,003 

15,058 

17,980 

16,400 

19,816 

14,659 



PRINCE GEORGE'S. 



SAINT MARY'S. 



CALVERT. 



j Slaves. 


F. Col. White. 


Total. ' .Slaves. 


F. Col. 


White. 


Total. 


Slaves. 


F. Col. 


White. Total. 


1790 11,176 


164 


10,004 


21,344 6,985 


343 


8,216 


15,544 


4,305 


136 


4,161 


8,502 


ISOO 12,191 


648 


8, .346 


21,185 6,399 


622 


6,678 


13,699 


4,401 


307 


3,889 


8,297 


1810 9,189 


4,929 


6,471 


20,589! 6,000 


636 


6,158 


12.794 


3,937 


388 


3,860 


8,005 


1820 11.285 


1,096 


7,835 


20,216! 6,048 


894 


6,032 


12,974 


3,668 


694 


3,716 


8,078 


18.30 11,585 


1,202 


7,667 


20,474' 6,183 


1,179 


6,097 


13,459 


3,899 


1,213 


3,788 


8,900 


1840,10,640 


1.080 


7,763 


19,483; 5,757 


1.413 


6,074] 


13,244 


4,401 


1,292 


3,402 


9,095 



CHARL ES. 



ISIaves.lF. Col. White 



1790 10,0851 
1800 9,558[ 
18lo'l2,435 
1820i 9,419] 
1830 10,129; 



404 
571 
412 
567 



10,124 
9,043 
7,398 
6,514 



851 6,789 



1840, 9,2801 8171 5,915 



ANNE ARUNDEL. 



Total. IjSlavos. F. Col. 
20,613 10,130 804 
19,172 9,760 1,833 
20,245 111,693 2,536 
16,500 '10,328 3,382 
17,769!} 9,997 4,076 
]6,012|l 9,816 1 6,120 



White. Total. 

11,664 22,.598 

11,030 22,623 

12.439 26,668 

13,455 27,165 

14,222 28,295 

14,599 29,535 



Note.— Carroll county is not in- 
cluded in this statement, having 
been created since 1H30, and the 
population of Halliniore and 
Frederick counties, from which 
Carroll wastaken.is not carried 
out in 1840, part of their popula- 
tion beinK then included in the 
census of Carroll countyj 



Table taken from the foregoing, and shemng the proportions of the White and 
Free Coloured Population in the several Counties in Maryland, in 1790, 
and in 1S40. 



Allegany. 


In 


1790, 


1 free col'c 


Ito 


378 ^^ 


hites : 


in 1840, 


Ito 68 


Washington. 




K 


1 




226 


i< 


II 


Ito 16 


Frederick. 




(1 


1 




126 


II 


1830, 


1 to 13 


Baltimore. 




(I 


1 




23 


11 


II 


Ito 10 


Frederick, Baltimore 


and Carroll, the latter taken off between 




1830 and 1840 : 










1840, 


Ito 9 


Baltimore City. 


In 


1790, 


1 free col'd to 


•37 whites : 


II 


Ito 4^ 


Harford. 




II 


1 " 




14 


II 


<i 


Ito 41 


Montgomery. 




11 


1 " 




39 


II 


(1 


Ito 6| 


Prince George's. 




II 


1 " 




61 


■< 


II 


Ito 7 


Charles. 




II 


1 " 




25 


II 


ti 


Ito 7 


Saint Mary's. 




<{ 


1 " 




24 


II 


II 


Ito 4^ 


Calvert. 




II 


1 II 




30 


II 


II 


Ito %,% 


Anne Arundel. 




IC 


1 (1 




14 


II 


II 


Ito 2/^ 


Carroll. 














II 


Ito 17 


Cecil. 




II 


1 II 




61 


II 


i< 


Ito 51 


Kent. 




(1 


1 " 




10 


II 


■ 1 


Ito 2-1- 


Caroline. 




II 


1 " 




16 


(( 


II 


Ito 3A 


Talbot. 




II 


1 " 




61 


(1 


II 


Ito 2tV 


Queen Anne's. 




II 


1 " 




13 


11 


II 


Ito 2t^V 


Somerset. 




II 


1 II 




30 


II 


II 


Ito 4/^ 


Dorchester. 




II 


1 " 




19 


II 


II 


Ito 2A 


Worcester. 




II 


1 " 




43 


II 


11 


Ito 3A 



statement of the Manumissions reported to the Commissioners of the State 

Fund, since 1831. 

Number manumitted in the State since the year 1831, . 2,342 

Of this number, were manumitted forthwith, (and where no 

time was specified, it was presumed to mean forthwith,) . 1,100 

Of those contingent or depending upon the life of an individual, 170 
Number of prospective manumissions, time already expired and 

now free, 222 



Number of prospective manumissions, time yet to expire, 

No. of manumissions 
in the different counties, 

226 . 

15 
600 , 

18 

50 

50 



850 



Anne Arundel, 

Allegany, 

Baltimore city and county, 

Caroline, 

Calvert, . 

Carroll, . 

Cecil, 

Charles, . 

Dorchester, 

Frederick, 

Harford, 

Kent, 

Montgomery, 

Prince George 

Saint Mary's, 

Talbot, . 

So^ierset, 

Queen Anne's, 

Washington, . 

Total, 



No. remaining on permit in 
all counties yet heard from. 

9 



133 



69 

23 

20 

604 

67 

30 

108 

62 

8 

138 

39 

145 

70 

2342 



2 for the past five years. 



JVum^er of Expeditions dispatched by the Md. State Col. Society, since 1831. 



Schooner Orion, 
Ship La Fayette, 
Brig Ann, 
Brig Bourne, 
Schooner Harmony, 
Brig Fortune, . 
Schooner Financier, 
Brig Niobe, 
Brig Baltimore, . 
Brig Niobe, 
Schooner Columbia, 
Brig Oberon, 
Brig Boxer, 



Date of sailing. 

Nov. 1831 . 

Dec. 1832 . 

Nov. 1833 . 
Dec. 1&34 

June, 1835 . 

Dec. 1835 . 

July, 1836 . 

Oct. 1836 . 

May, 1837 . 

Nov. 1837 . 

May, 1838 . 

Nov. 1838 . 

Dec. 1839 . 

Total, 



No. of Emigrants, 

31 
146 
17 
57 
27 
39 
15 
32 
55 
85 
36 
52 
32 



f. 



24 



N. B. The two first named expeditions were sent to Cape Mesurado, pre- 
vious to the estabUshment of the Maryland Colony. 

54 W 



